Police: Dad apparently shoots wife, two sons, then himself

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LANDENBERG, Pa. — A middle-aged couple and their two sons were found dead in their home in what police called an apparent murder-suicide committed by the father.

State troopers found the bodies of Davis Weaver, 61, Nancy Weaver, 51, Matthew Weaver, 21, and Mark Weaver, 18, inside the family’s Chester County home Thursday evening. All had been shot to death with a revolver, police said.

Mark Weaver had been scheduled to graduate from high school Sunday and was to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in the fall, officials at his high school said. His older brother was a student at the University of Maryland.

“Everything I understand about the boys, they were good kids,” state police Trooper Corey Monthei said. “They had a lot to look forward to.”

Nancy Weaver and her sons were found dead in their respective beds, and there were no signs of a struggle, Monthei said. Police said Davis Weaver was found in bed with his wife.

The house is in a quiet, upper-middle-class neighborhood about 35 miles southwest of Philadelphia. The family had lived there for 16 years, Monthei said.

Monthei said investigators had not immediately determined a motive. But the father, a longtime guidance counselor at an elementary school in Wilmington, Del., had been on leave from his job since March, school secretary Paula Booker said. She declined to say why he was on leave.

Hundreds of people gathered Friday night for a funeral Mass in West Grove, Pa. — many of them the sons’ classmates from St. Mark’s High School.

“Matt and Mark both were very, very bright young men. That’s part of the tragedy,” Assistant Principal Tim Neal said. “We’ll be asking why for a long time.”